Sky
Sky, mother of Willow and Sea , was the main wolf who was in charge of raising all five of the original characters. She looked almost exactly like Sea, with grey fur highlighted by silver and deep, ocean-blue eyes, a rare color among wolves. Pre-series Sky was born to a very small pack living outside the fringes of Darkwood territory. She grew up unaware of the presence of the Darkwood pack and the terrible things they were doing, as her parents and the rest of the pack felt the need to shelter her unnecessarily. Sky soon realized that they were doing so and felt restricted by her life there. As many wolves do, she left as a yearling, intending to find a mate who had also left his own pack and start one of her own. She wandered around for over a year, passing in and out of Darkwood territory without even realizing that she was tempting fate the entire time. Though she wondered why she wasn't encountering other loners, it never really bothered her; she was intoxicated by the freedom of being on her own. Finally, she did meet another loner, and quickly began to fall in love with him. Almost a month after they had officially decided to be mates, they went furthur away from Darkwood territory and encountered another pair of wolves which was also trying to build a pack. The two pairs almost went their separate ways, but at the last moment Sky decided it might be better if they stuck together - the prospect of being Alpha of a pack was making her nervous, anyway. She finally convinced the other three to agree, and they formed their own little pack, with the other pair as the Alphas, Sky as the beta, and her mate a mid-ranker. They formed their own territory, unaware that it was actually within Darkwood territory - the powerful pack was very complacent about their border marking. Foolishly, both pairs ended up mating in the late summer, rather than in the traditional early spring. The result was that both the Alpha female and Sky bore their pups in the winter - the Alpha's less than a month before Sky's. Both gave birth to three pups, the Alphess with the only male. The small pack was soon trapped inside a cave by the snowstorms that raged through the territory. The adults could have survived it easily, but the pups soon began to cry for food. Finally, they decided that they would have to venture into the snow to find food for the crying pups, and also that it would be much better to travel in groups. Sky volunteered to stay with the pups, to keep them warm, and her mate and the Alphas left. They never returned. Sky assumed that they had perished in the cold - although she would later learn from Shade that they had in fact been killed off by wolves from Darkwood. One of her pups, a small female, died of hunger, but the other five managed to survive until the snowstorms abated. Sky left the cave, found food, returned, and nursed all five pups. She was also the one to name them, and the one who would raise them for the next six months. Book One Sky began her part in this book by giving extra lessons to Timber, who struggled with hunting more than the rest of the pups. She was still helping him when Ivy, who had also been nearby why her brother was being helped, appeared, and then casually mentioned that Snowflake, Sea and Willow were out wandering around in their territory and were somewhere near the stream. Sky, who knew that the stream was a very common place for Darkwood wolves to be, raced to find them and discovered Shade with them. A conversation ensued, mainly consisting of threats, in which Sky told Shade that she would never allow her to harm her pups. Shade scoffed at that, but didn't attack them then; instead, she allowed Sky one chance to run. Sky did, carrying the slow-running Willow while Ivy and Snowflake kept up with her. She set them down by the cave and told them to wait for her. She then ran to a certain area and began digging frantically, looking for something she had buried there, and panicking because it seemed to be missing. Whether it was missing or not is unknown, as she was interrupted by a Darkwood wolf (Poison) who said simply, "Sorry. You lose." before lunging for her. Her point of view ending there, but a few pages later, she was discovered dead by Willow, thus ending the first chapter and her part in the story. When wolves die, their spirits are always escorted to the afterlife by one wolf they knew who has died, usually whoever they were closest to - Sky was most likely escorted by her mate. A short time later, she returned to lead Timber, and even communicated with Willow and Sea a little, though she was unable to speak.